Steering drag link

[bucket]

Well I ended up welding nuts to the tops of the studs and getting them out. I'm not convinced it's going to be any better. This picture is it all done and back on its own weight. It's on a jack stand on the driver side by the way.

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It's not bad, it appears to match the arch of the spring.

What's your tow-in setting at? With 33's or around in there, about 3/16" tow-in is pretty good, when measured from the tread surface. If it's too far off, one direction or another, the steering will dart all over the place when there's bumps in the road. Stiff springs will kind of amplify that too.

 

[Bigred3plus3]

It's not bad, it appears to match the arch of the spring.

What's your tow-in setting at? With 33's or around in there, about 3/16" tow-in is pretty good, when measured from the tread surface. If it's too far off, one direction or another, the steering will dart all over the place when there's bumps in the road. Stiff springs will kind of amplify that too.

Well here soon I'm going to take it down and have it put on an alignment rake to really have it dialed in. But I need to get new wheels and tires first.

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[77 K20]

I think it looks good to me. It does fairly closely follow the spring pack- which is good. Definitely better than what you had before.

As you hit a bump the springs compress which flatten out the spring pack making it longer. This will move the axle rearward and up when the spring shackle flexes back. Moving the axle back will make you turn left (steering box is fixed). However if the drag link has a slight downward tilt to the axle it will move up a bit. As it gets closer to being perfectly horizontal the drag link is effectively getting longer. A "longer" drag link will make you steer right... so they will essentially cancel each other out.

The way you had it before would make it really want to steer left when the front suspension compressed and right when the axle would droop.

Not sure if it makes sense to anyone else- but that was how I had to explain it to myself when I had steering issues.

 

[77 K20]

Whoops. Double post.

 

[bucket]

I think it looks good to me. It does fairly closely follow the spring pack- which is good. Definitely better than what you had before.

As you hit a bump the springs compress which flatten out the spring pack making it longer. This will move the axle rearward and up when the spring shackle flexes back. Moving the axle back will make you turn left (steering box is fixed). However if the drag link has a slight downward tilt to the axle it will move up a bit. As it gets closer to being perfectly horizontal the drag link is effectively getting longer. A "longer" drag link will make you steer right... so they will essentially cancel each other out.

The way you had it before would make it really want to steer left when the front suspension compressed and right when the axle would droop.

Not sure if it makes sense to anyone else- but that was how I had to explain it to myself when I had steering issues.

Makes sense to me

 

[Bigred3plus3]

Makes sense to me. Will test drive as soon as I get new tires. Also going to put new gears in it.

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[Craig 85]

It looks like the drag link is still backwards. The longer link goes on the steering arm. These are the measurement from Napa's on line catalog.
At Pitman Arm - 6.34" Long
At Steering Arm - 8.34" Long

 

[Bigred3plus3]

Yes I know but there is no way it will catch on anything. The truck is a pavement pounder and will never see any articulation. It will be fine for now. I have way to many other things to worry about currently on the truck.

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[Bigred3plus3]

So the combo of pulling the 3 inch steering arm lift block out and the new wheels and tires the truck drives so much better. What a relief!

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